How to Weigh Meat – Cooked or Raw?
Posted by Michael Vacanti
If you’ve ever counted macros, you know some foods present a bit of trouble.
Chobani, easy.
Mom’s manicotti, not so easy.
For many of these not-so-easy foods, the solution is a food scale.
Weighing food on a scale removes the error that accompanies measuring cups/spoons.
But, there is one food group that still confuses us carnivores: Meat.
SHOULD I WEIGH MEAT COOKED OR RAW?
The data on a nutrition label corresponds to one serving of raw meat.
So, you should weigh your meat raw if possible.
However, this might be inconvenient or impossible; maybe you didn’t cook it yourself or maybe you cooked a week’s worth of beef at once.
Later in this post, I will share a strategy for accurately weighing cooked meat.
For now, know that raw and cooked meat differ in weight because water and other juices in meat evaporate through the culinary process. Speaking of, check out me and my utilitarian kitchen skills as we weigh some protein.
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BEEF
Raw
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Cooked
Beef Stats
- Raw: 499g
- Cooked: 371g
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CHICKEN
Raw
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Cooked
Chicken Stats
- Raw: 553g
- Cooked: 368g
By the way, I TORCH my chicken. Like, I cook it really thoroughly. The thought of biting into fleshy pink undercooked chicken literally makes me ecoli vomit in my mouth.
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SALMON
Raw
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Cooked
Salmon Stats
- Raw: 249g
- Cooked: 199g
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How To Weigh Cooked Meat
If you are in a situation where you must weigh your meat cooked, it’s okay. Breathe. I gotchu.
Now, if you cook your meat thoroughly, there will be less water (and weight) in the finished product. For instance, take two identical pieces of raw meat and cook one rare and the other well-done. The well-done piece will weigh less than the rare piece.
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Weighing Well-Done Meat
Examples: Hockey-puck hamburger or Vacanti-dry chicken breast
When weighing (cooked) well-done meat, multiply the weight by 1.5 and use the meat’s raw nutrition facts
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Weighing Rare Meat
Examples: Seared ahi tuna or Pittsburgh rare steak.
When weighing (cooked) rare meat, multiply the weight by 1.1 and use the meat’s raw nutrition facts.
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Example
You heat up two chicken breasts that were left over from that weekend BBQ. They were cooked pretty thoroughly but not torched. So you decide on a 1.4x multiplier.
We know that 4 ounces (113g) of chicken breast contains 24g protein, 0g carbs and 1g fat.
Weigh the two cooked chicken breasts: 6.8 ounces. 6.8 x 1.4 = 9.52 ounces
We have 2.38 (4 ounce) servings, or 57g protein, 0g carbs, 2g fat.
That’s it; weigh your meat raw.
If you can’t weigh your meat raw, go ahead and multiply the weight of your cooked meat by a 1.1 – 1.5 as described above to appropriately apply the meat’s nutrition facts.
Your questions or comments are welcomed, as always.
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Comments for This Entry
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ontheregimen
Thank you!
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Frank
Loving the info. This sort of stuff is so hard to find so clearly laid out. Very well done sir.-
Mike Author
Thanks Frank, I really appreciate that.
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Dave
hi what if you are in a situation where you can't weigh the food? for example I am in the army and can't be taking scales to the cookhouse every day.-
Mike Author
Dave - great question. There are ways you can estimate pretty accurately - for example, one serving of cooked meat is about the size of a deck of cards (or the palm of your hand). You can use that as an estimate of the number of servings you eat - then look up the macros for that type of meat online. That make sense?
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Nikki
In my diet lately I've been eating Piedmontese beef. The raw weight of the beef is 8oz but after being cooked it's 3-4 oz. Would I be eating 8oz of protein or 3-4 oz of protein? This always confuses me !-
Mike Author
8 oz!
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Diana Garcia
Great info, thanks for sharing. The only meat I eat 90% of the time is turkey. So,on the package of the raw turkey breasts tenderloin nutritional facts state, 4oz has 28 grams of protein, 0 frams of carbs and 1 gram of fat. As you state at the beginning of the article, "The data on a nutrition label corresponds to one serving of raw meat." So does all the nutritional value of the serving still stay the same when its cooked or does it change?-
ivan
if you buy 300 grams chicken breast (raw) , they have aprox. 60 grams of protein 21*3 . When you cook that , 300 grams would be 200, and the amount of protein will be 60 grams. Simple, if you measure raw 21 g -100g, if you measure cooked , 30 g - 100 g. I just followed the example from above.
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Carly Burr
Great info! I've literally been searching for an answer to these questions since 2009! I cook my chicken in bulk for the whole family so it is impractical to weigh it raw - all I wanted to know was how much 135g raw chicken weighs when cooked and now I have your formula that's helped massively and showed me I've been slightly over eating on protein! Thank you so much. Really appreciate the info!-
Mike Author
You're welcome Carly :)
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ivan
raw chicken breast in 100 g - 21.5 grams of protein cooked chicken breast in 100 g - 30 grams of protein. How ? From the example above: 113 g - 24 g.protein 100 g ~21.5 g.protein from here weighted chicken breast were 6.8 oz ,which is 190 g which is ~57 grams of protein. (breast were cooked) 6.8 oz or 190 grams * 1.4 is 9.52 oz or 266 grams RAW. 266*21.5/100 = 57 grams of protein (raw) -
Ed
Hello Mike, GREAT info by the way I truly appreciate all the knowledge. The question I have for you about weighing your meat cooked is how did you come up with the 1.1-1.4 to muliply it by the weight of your cooked meat?-
Mike Author
Ed - that was the calculated based on the average difference in the weight of cooked vs raw meat (since nutrition labels pertain to raw meat, and cooked meat weighs less, we use a multiplier).
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Izamar
what is i boil my chicken? Should i multiply by 1.1 or 1.5? thank you!! :) -
Mike
Hey Mike! One question: let's say I'm having grilled salmon or grilled beef (fattier cut) for dinner. Since they're fattier cuts of meat, I'm going to grill them without using any additional fats, so once they're grilled they will have lost a good amount of their fat. By using your multiplier method, however, the grilled product is gonna have more fat than the raw product, when it should be the other way around! What are your thoughts on this? How should we count the fats on cooked vs raw meats and fish? Thanks!-
DurtySoufBeast
Hey Mike, I was dealing with this issue on cooking fattier meats this weekend. The nutritional value doesn't change as far as with protein. However, the nutritional value from a fat intake aspect would change. As for counting the fat on cooked vs raw meats, I would just take a guesstimate the amount of fat that remains in the cooked meat. For example I made some homemade Turkey Burgers this weekend and I used the 85/15 ground turkey. Every 4 oz contained 17grams of fat so once I cooked the meat. I made a mental note that atleast half of the fat was rendered out of the burgers, which made the much healthier than in the raw state. side note: I also placed the cooked burgers on a paper towel after cooking-
Mike Author
You are right that the "nutritional value" doesn't change for any of the macros. And you are correct that blotting/straining the meat after cooking it reduces dietary fat. Like I do in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUqHPQl8B6Y But you DO lose water weight when cooking meat. So 4 ounces of cooked meat DOES have more calories (protein, and possibly fat depending on the meat) than 4 ounces of raw meat.
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Joe
Izamar, you can determine the multiplier yourself. Weigh a piece of chicken raw, boil that piece, weigh it again and compare the difference in weights. Heavier weight / Lighter weight = multiplier. *** Antispam disabled. Check access key in CleanTalk plugin options. Antispam service cleantalk.org. *** -
Karen
I need to find out how much pork to buy, cook for hours in a roaster, to make pulled pork sliders. I see the 3 oz. Measurements per serving is the usual measurements but I think that might be more than needed for one slider, not sure. Might be cooking for about 100 with two sliders per person. Wilk certainly appreciate any help you can give me. *** Antispam disabled. Check access key in CleanTalk plugin options. Request number 6e8cbe601cea046df71bbf2790537502. Antispam service cleantalk.org. *** -
George
So if you are suppose to eat say 10 oz of meat chicken and so on and that is raw weight but when cooked it go down some but does it effect the proteins and carbs in the food say if it 10 oz raw and when cooked it like 7 oz would u be getting the 10oz of protein and carbs or the 7 oz *** Antispam disabled. Check access key in CleanTalk plugin options. Request number fa3a949a5ed0e5e063f3b02bf5737383. Antispam service cleantalk.org. *** -
Catherine
I'm confused! With the example used you will get more than double the protein with cooked meat but not double the grams. Can you explain? -
Catherine
I must be really calculating wrong!! This is my method of calculation: 4oz/113g Raw Whole Foods Sockeye Salmon Fillets- 25g protein Cooked - serving portion 2oz/58g 2oz is half of 4oz.. half of 25 = 12.5g protein Half the size, half the nutritional value Another example: same as above except 2.5oz cooked serving... 4oz minus 2.5oz = 1.5 (shortage) 4oz divided by 1.5oz (shortage) =2.7 25g divided by 2.7 = 9.3 (shortage) 25g minus 9.3 = 15.7g of protein Can you please recalculate with your formula? -
DurtySoufBeast
Catherine, I think you're looking at the formula incorrectly. The nutritional value of the meat doesn't change due to the water or juices being cooked out of the meat. The only way you would receive double portions of your salmon is that if you weight out 4 oz of cooked salmon. -
Wes
Hi there. Just stumbled across this. How would you weigh something like a cooked and shredded lamb leg meat? I Do 4 oz portions for meat. -
Martine
Very helpful! Question: I cook ground turkey breast in bulk (3, 4 packages at a time) and it usually ends up reducing with some water from ingredients I use (soy sauce, tomatoe sauce, broth, etc...) how would I measure that? Currently, I meausre it in ounces raw and divide that by 4 to get the number of 4oz servings and then when I'm done cooking it, I either meausre out 4oz and try not up be so anal about it or measure the whole pot and divide it by however many 4oz servings there were from when I measured it raw. But there's got to be an easier way, right? Lol Thanks for your time! -
Christina
Hey Mike this is such an awesome post, my friend is doing something like the hcg diet and we are trying to figure out the weight of everything she eats. Can you help us w/ weighing frozen food and how that would compare to the cooked weight? Is it the same as weighing it raw and unfrozen? I would think it would weigh more when frozen and raw then when thaw and raw. :) thx for your help! -
Sarah
Hi. Does this apply to other foods. Eg. Sweet potato? -
Patrick
Hey Mike, just found this site and am just starting to count macros. How do you estimate the amount of fat in a piece of meat eggs steak or chicken? Also I am having a hard time getting my protein filled without blowing my fat intake. Any suggestions? Just stick to leaner meat? -
Jalissa Carreno
I'm so confused! I'm so new to this whole counting macros and weighing my food. So this is stuff is gibberish at the moment. Okay so let's say my daily caloric protein intake is 123g a day, how do I measure that exactly on a scale? One chicken breast that i weighted was 410g and I know I eating less that a chicken breast will leave me hungry. Do I need to convert the gram on the scale to another gram? If so how. HELP!! :( thanks in advance. -Jalissa -
Sabrina G
Question. What about ground turkey? How do we figure that out? = -
d
your weight is wrong 28x4oz =112g not 113g wouldnt trust anything you say ........ -
tommy
Hey Mike Great Post, how would i determine nutritional value for my homemade beefjerky? if 100 grams of raw meat losses half of its weight in water are the nutritional values still the same just in 50 grams -
Joni
Thanks for sharing! My meal plan calls for 4oz. cooked meat, however, I was unsure how to measure this out for my homemade burgers. Keep the info coming! -
Roni
So if I want to to have say, 5 oz of prptein in each of meal prep container, then the number I'm looking for on the scale is going to be 1.1 - 1.5 LESS? Example: I cook my chicken moist and juicy, but cooled through, so I'll use 1.3. If i want 5 oz of chicken on my plate, and 5 x 1.3 = 6.5, then I want to weigh the meat to 1.5 ounces less than my goal. So I will weigh out 3.5 ounces of cooked meat and call it 5 ounces? TIA for your help! -
Steve
Hi, MIke. Thank you for the post. My question: I really like cooking burgers on the grill using 85/15 lean to fat ratio ground beef. I know that the meat will lose some water during cooking, but some fat also renders out. Is there a way to estimate the amount of fat that is removed from the burgers for the purpose of determining macros? -
Kyti
What about shrimp? I always buy them precooked. Are they measured as they are in the package that I purchased (cooked) or in a raw state for which I have no viable source of weight? -
Joe fax
I need to have 6oz of cooked meat in my meal. How do I really get the position right when its raw. Do I multiply. Can u help me please. Thx -
Samantha
I appreciate the info, always been a big question i had unanswered correctly. Seems to make sense. -
Caren with a C
Thanks for the help dude! -
Melissa Cotrim
Very useful post and well written too!! Good job! -
Sal
So if I weigh my meat raw. I weigh it per serving correct.-
Mike Author
Correct!
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Raluca
So, when you calculate the nutritional facts of a food, you always calculate of the raw quantity not of the cooked one, right? For example ( not meat related) if you have 500 grs of squash, after cooking you got 200. You calculate the kcal of the first one, right? -
Bobbi
Mike! hi!, question ..i recently acquired the book "the complete book of food counts" which has actual raw vs cooked food counts listed for everything.. ie 80% fat ground beef raw pan browned or a patty grilled to steak etc. can i go buy this book ? for example raw ground beef at 80% LEAN says 19.5 g protein then pan browned crumbled 4 0z of 80 % lean goes to 30 g protein...does this seem accurate? have you ever heard of it...i am hoping it will come in handy since i just started the journey of macro counting.. thank you !-
Bobbi
opps i meant can i go by** this book not buy it lol
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Alex
So how many ounces of cooked chicken is equivalent to 4 oz. raw? -
Olivia
Way to go, SEO! Googling weighing cooked meat vs raw and this was the first thing that came up. Or the interwebs just know where I've been... -
Mike R.
Great info and thanks so much. Your last statement [under the cow] is what I was waiting for. My wife has kidney disease & follows her guidelines. She was hoping it would be the other way around [get more chicken to eat]. But alas, we must keep on doin' what we're doin' {;-) -
Ryan
For example just say I weigh my chicken to be 200g raw then once it cooked it is 160g when I go to add the nutritional information on my fitness pal app so I put in it raw Weight or cooked weight? -
lorrie
just so I understand... when I calorie count my food. i weight the meat BEFORE i cook it NOT after and that should give me the correct calories ive eatten for that piece of meat. do -
David
This is a great resource to help with macro counting. I appreciate you taking the time to do this. Thanks! -
Ryan
I'm going to have to add to this. There is talk about using nutritional data of raw meat...I think that is only partially true. It stands to reason that if there IS a fat loss(this varies based on the initial fat percentage), then the calories associated with that fat are gone. There are not magical calories that remain. However, the protein amount stays. Look at this article: http://simmerandboil.cookinglight.com/2013/05/21/how-much-fat-drips-off-your-burger/ For 85/15 your weight reduction is about 33% grilled, and the fat reduction (verified by a lab) is about 26%. Now, this fat reduction has some variance, it depends on if you're doing it rare, or are you doing it medium well? Are you using a normal grill, or a george foreman? The consensus across many tests and forums is between .25 and .33 so I tend to average it to .3. This math pretty much matches up to this article, because only well done and rare were mentioned (1.10 aka 10% vs 1.5 aka 50%), I added in medium. While true, the same 'weight' of a cooked piece will have more calories than the raw piece, that is because you're taking the protein values of the raw portion, and and between 66% to 75% of the fat of the raw portion. This can be misleading on sites like fatsecret, calorieking, myfitnesspal that don't make it very clear if it's raw or cooked. Today for example, I had 8.5oz of COOKED grass fed 85/15 ground beef to medium. Raw, this was about 13 oz, and about 75G of protein, and 36G of fat. When cooked to medium, it was near spot on at 33% reduction in weight, as 13 * .66 = 8.58oz. I estimate my fat to be down to 36 * .7, or 25G fat, but retaining the 75G of protein. Hope this helps.-
Thankful
To Ryan, 9 posts above. Thank you for this breakdown. Attempted to reply below your comment but the site would not hear of it, ha. Ok! So! With the breakdown you gave, you are left with 8.5 oz of meat from 13 oz. That part I get. The protein stays put from the 13 oz. That part I get. What I don't quite understand is how do you calculate CALORIES left from the COOKED 8.5 ounces? Thank you!
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Bill
I appreciate the videos on raw versus cooked, but I have a further question. When I cook, e.g., a Costco sirloin burger, (5 oz./ 330 cal.) I make sure to not eat the fat that remains in the pan, so the 85/15/ burger I started with is now a 4 oz. 93/07 burger. What then? -
Bill
Missed the guy in front of me's post. Sorry. -
Lauren
Thank you!! Super helpful. Also happy to have found a kindred chicken torcher...or as I call it, killing it again haha -
Ricardo Garza
So if I weigh my chicken breast raw would that count as the same as the nutrition facts on the bag of chicken or should I go with the weight of the cooked chicken which one has more benefits ? Sorry I probably missed it -
Chris W
What about stuff like sweet potatoes? They get significantly smaller when baked so logic says there has be some sort of multiplier there too. -
GameOver
you must have extremely dry meat to start with, i've found Chicken, Beef, Lamb reduces by around half usually, sometimes less and if you let it settle afterwards you'll lose even more which makes creating exact recipes a nightmare not to mention costly given you need to by twice as much as you need. -
GameOver
Oh i should've quantified i cook most of my meat in a fan forced oven just sitting in a roasting pan and the water drains off afterwards. -
Passio
God!! This was clear and to the point. Finally someone who just gives us what we need! Lol -
Karla
I love your blog! I feel I have found a great place to get true information about fitness so thank you for all your time and sharing your knowledge! -
Will
Really clear and helpful post. Thanks. Recently I've been digging the Costco brand pork loin tip roast. Put it in the crock pot with an onion on low, and voila, after 8 hours you have delicious, high protein food of the gods. The macros for this stuff, raw, are amazing. 100 cals for 4 ounces, with 22 g of protein, 2g fat. However, I can't figure out, using your info above, how to treat cooked pork loin, where it was cooked in a moist environment like a slow cooker. Obviously its going to retain a lot more water than your hockey puck hamburger. What say ye? -
Ruth
What is the formula for weighing frozen raw fish such as cod, founder,shrimp,scallops? -
Ruth
Oops. Flounder ! -
Eric
Awesome info, I'm saving this and I'll follow your site. -
Joey
so I weigh before and that's the correct serving size? -
Melly
Hi, off topic. But how do u weigh your rice? It says on the bag uncooked, but cooked the portions would be much more correct? -
Kelly
Thanks so much for this! I've looked all over the internet for the answer to this question and you explained it in a simple, concise answer in a matter of minutes. This really, really helps with my portion control. Also I love how open you are about your anxiety and depression. I'm trying to use diet and exercise to get off my meds. Lastly, your floof (dog) is so cute and I want to kiss him/her. In summary, you're amazing. I have never followed a fitness blog but I am following one now! -
mona
great info.. I'm still trying to figure out how to do the macros. i will re read it again. -
Joseph Chance Watkins
Very helpful article. Thanks for sharing; Jesus Christ Bless :) -
Daniil
Simple Solution and what I just started doing: 1. Weigh all the meat you are planning to cook raw, lets say 500 grams of Chicken. 2. Cook meat however you want all of it 3. Weigh the cooked meat, lets say now the Chicken weighs 400 grams. 4. Do the following Ratio: (cooked weight) / (raw weight) Chicken: 400 / 500 = .8 5. Lets say that night you need to eat 150g of raw chicken according to your diet plan... Boom take 150 * 0.8 = 120g of your cooked chicken to get the nutritional value of the 150g raw. 6. Do this each time you cook a batch and boom you have a conversion value for that batch as it can all differ based on all the factors mentioned -
Ibrahem Mahmoud
Love the info man. Just had a quick question. Why should I weigh it raw if the water in raw meat evaporates after cooking? Wouldn't that be extra calories I think I'm getting but Im actually not getting. -
Vamsee Mohan Kanneganti
I do this atleast once a week and have weighed the conversion several times. I pressure cook 200 grams of Boneless Chicken Breast Meat. It is always 120 grams. -
Paula
If you want to order meats, say steak or actually anything whether it's fish, chicken or beef, and they go by pound. What can you ask them for to cut the meats into portion sizes all ready instead of you trying to figure it later? -
samantha
Hi there, Mom made me some ground turkey burgers last night. One of them I got her to weight raw for me at 135g. The rest were a bit smaller and cooked (tiny bit crispy on the outside) ranged from 73-77g cooked. Would I use the beef example for this? What should I multiply with? Thank you -
Gloria K Frato
Hello Mike, so I'm freaking out right now. I have been weighing my chicken/meat cooked! I eat 4oz, 3× a day. So I have I actually been eating to much, right? ? -
Amanda
Hi Just a quick question, what about frozen fish though? Thanks! -
Omar sarr
I like you and i hope i can be like you -
Los
How do you weigh ham that has been cooked in an oven? -
Erin
What about smoked meat? What multiplier should I use? It maintains a lot of moisture due to the lower cooking temperature. We smoke chicken, turkey, and pork for our weekly food prep. We rarely "grill" unless its beef, which is only 1-2x/month. -
Brian
Thanks for the info! Please help with up to 15% added solution chicken breast. Label says 4oz portion is 22g protein. 0 carb. 2.5g fat. It weighs exactly 5 pounds therefore i should have exactly 20 portions. I need to be certain this is accurate. Is the label definitely accurate For after the solution added? People say the added solution is rip off because your paying $x per pound of only 85%chicken and 15%water. As long as in definitely getting 440 grams of protein i can decide if the price is fair. But if that number is diluted by 15%and I'm only getting 375g of protein then that's a problem. Thanks -
Kristin
Thanks for the helpful info! How do you account for meat that has been cooked in something - for example, chicken cooked in a crock pot with broth or sauce or some sort. Obviously, it would be ideal to weigh it before mixing them altogether, but what if it's already been cooked by someone else? Does the liquid broth/sauce make up for the water content that evaporates during cooking? -
Hannah
I love you so much right now. My dietician gave me a meal plan and I need --- ounces of protein at each meal and I had a cooked piece of salmon. I know that nutrition information is generally for it raw (right? Or is it cooked) anyways. You rock. Now I know how much I'm getting. -
Christine
So if I’m supposed to eat 3oz of ground beef and I weigh it cooked. Am I eating less or more than I should be? -
Rk
How about salmon? After cooked the oil will be left on the cooking pan. So the fat contain will be reduced? -
Andrew
Hi, What if you have the nutritional value for the meat in it’s cooked form, should you just use that? -
Leo T
Thanks for the info. How would this apply to the calories. I am new to measuring food and counting Thanks ahead of time -
allan G
Have cooked 4.024 kg of chicken breast. Weighted it when finished cooking and it was 2.7gk.???? I think im getting PUMPED UP chicken. I wont name the company just yet, but what Is the % lost from raw to cooked.. PS this was fresh chicken breasts -
Chin Batoor
For example i eat per meal 250gr while cooked it can be 180gr it's lose weight. Can lose protein as well or now ? -
Douglas
How many calories do we lose when we grill are meats? -
Jim
I figure using a multiplier of 1.3 should get you "close enough" for all cooked meats. -
Denise
“The thought of biting into fleshy pink undercooked chicken literally makes me ecoli vomit in my mouth.” Just an FYI - chicken is salmonella. Beef is ecoli 🤪 -
Curtis
Thank you for this -
Adria
What if you weigh your meat raw before cooking it and once again when cooked. Then divide the weight of the raw meat by the weight of the cooked meat and use that as a conversion factor-
Michael Vacanti Author
That would work!
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James M
Hi there, thanks a lot for this great info! But what if I cook, say, beef chili con carne or chicken curry in a slow cooker? Surely it will retain the water weight? Thanks in advance :) -
Martin
So 16oz of 75/25 ground beef has 25% fat. After cooking you drain that 25% away leaving you with 12oz. Being that the 25% fat is calculated into the raw nutritional data on the back of the package why are we going to include that in the macros when we’ve discarded 4oz of fat? -
Tomieka N.
Well this article just made my day! It made a very complicated issue so simple. Thank you!
time2getfocused
Good stuff. Keep the knowledge flowing. Appreciate it.August 28, 2013 at 2:53 pm |